


Practical Application

by sleepismyfriend



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-15
Updated: 2012-09-15
Packaged: 2017-11-14 07:50:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/512975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepismyfriend/pseuds/sleepismyfriend
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having created the prototype for Project Indigo, Liz Shaw finds herself using said prototype in time of emergency.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Practical Application

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Spydurwebb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spydurwebb/gifts), [Dallas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dallas/gifts).



> Prompt was Brig/Liz, field ops and emotional breakdown. Takes place roughly in 2006.

Here in America, there is a gap between summer and fall, a respite between the impossible heat of August and cooler temperatures of September that Liz is somewhat unaccustomed to. She arrived not ten days ago in Washington D.C. at UNIT's request, prepared to give a full dissertation on the merit of Project Indigo to anyone who needed convincing.

Unfortunately, her arrival was the only sure thing of the entire experience.

"It's good to see you, Liz," the Brigadier's smile greeting her in UNIT's D.C. office comfort her in ways she didn't expect. She knows he's been in and out of Peru for the past several years, and that it's not likely he's kept up with her research.

How very wrong she was in those first few days as he asks her intensive questions about the project's design and purpose. She does her best to answer them in a basic way, and smiles afterward at his interest.

They travel in an unmarked UNIT-appointed convoy, the Brigadier and Liz in the first vehicle and several of UNIT's top scientists in the second from D.C. to New York. Most of Liz's Cambridge equipment has been shipped and installed here in America, merely awaiting the active prototype Liz carries with her. It all makes for a very covert arrangement. 

"I didn't expect this," Liz says, staring out the window in the backseat. The Brigadier is next to her, watching her probably more than she realizes.

"Just the nature of things, really. Harkness's Torchwood has become quite adept at discovering our technology, and we haven't managed to figure out why. But, we've got one thing he hasn't got."

"What's that?"

"Why my dear Miss Shaw, I would have thought you'd have figured that out by now."

\--

Standing in her new lab, Liz marvels at the upgrades UNIT has provided. State of the art computer systems fill each and every space not taken up by lab tables and tools. She watches as two lieutenants in berets roll in the prototype.

"Anything you need," the Brigadier says, smiling proudly at the work he accomplished long before Liz left Cambridge. "Just say the word."

"I think I'm quite spoiled enough, wouldn't you say?" 

"I wouldn't," the Brigadier's grin is almost her undoing.

\--

After two weeks, the Brigadier is called away on a top secret mission Liz suspects has little to do with her and everything to do with the presidential Peruvian elections between Alan Garcia and Ollanta Humala. She's known he would eventually go, but found herself rather missing their daily chats once he had.

As if in two weeks, she had grown accustomed to his daily presence again. 

Her prototype is successful in all initial trials with very little margin of error, and suddenly, her work is cut out for her. There are five replicas of the prototype to be made, and she is to oversee each and every bit of their production. 

As the replicas are built, it becomes apparent this sounds better in theory than in actual application. Having spent the better of two years working out the technical bugs, her prototype is flawless but the replicas are not and require greater calculations. 

That's when the phone calls begin. 

It starts first in the afternoon as she receives a phone call on the official UNIT line. She smiles when she hears the Brigadier's chuckle on the other end, and when it's suggested after a few afternoons that the calls are being monitored, she suggests Skype instead.

"Miss Shaw, I'm afraid to say this, but I hardly know how to work a mobile, much less a computer program," he says.

"Have one of your men help you," Liz grins. "Tell them that's an order."

For a few days, there aren't any phone calls as Liz puts the finishing touches on the first of the new prototypes. She's inputting data into Excel when the Skype screen appears. Her breath catches as Alistair's blurry face comes into view. 

"They rather laughed at me," he says. "But I suppose you knew that was going to happen." 

"I had my suspicions." 

"If only the Doctor could see us now," he laughs. "I wonder what he might say."

"He'd laugh at our primitive form of communication and just come barging into my lab with you and that blue box of his. Provided he knew where to land." She leans on one hand, her smile growing even wider.

"Where isn't the question," the Brigadier adds. "But a matter of when."

"Fair enough."

\--

It's 9:00 in the morning when General Sanchez enters her lab. She's giving instructions to one of her young scientists before they scurry out.

"Dr. Shaw, I'm afraid there's been some news," he says. "While en route in Peru, the Brigadier's had a stroke."

"A what?"

"A stroke." He watches as she slowly descends onto a stool, setting her clipboard to one side. She tries to hold the lump in her throat as he continues. "It's fairly serious. He's being airlifted to the St. Paul Clinic in Lima, one of the best private hospitals in their country."

"I appreciate your candor, General. Thank you." She watches as he salutes before turning and leaving. She then stands and makes her way to the prototype, eyeing it before putting the prototype on her back.

Securing it around her body, she wipes away the oncoming burning tears from her flushed cheeks. He will be fine, she tells herself. Because if it was critical, he wouldn't make it as far as the hospital and she has to believe he'll make it that far. 

She loops her fingers around the appropriate metal rings, closes her eyes, and clears her head. As long as her thought process is clear about her destination, the prototype will respond accordingly. 

She knows she's breaking more than a few of the project's guidelines, but she's not worried. She'll deal with UNIT later. After all, that's what her and Alistair do best. 

_Zap!_

\--

Slipping the prototype from her back, Liz remembers enough Spanish to get shown to the Brigadier's room. He's asleep when she arrives, setting the prototype in the nearest chair as she approaches the foot of his bed.

"Well, your vitals look good," she says, picking up his chart and scanning for the obvious numbers. She flips through several pages of lab results. "But how are you, really?"

He shifts as she rehangs the chart and moves to one side of him. It's only a second before his eyes flutter open and she sees an expression of relief.

"Lizz—" He doesn't get out the rest of her name as she puts her hand atop his, feeling the coolness of his fingers under her own. 

"I'm here." She motions to the prototype. "And I'm not going anywhere. Just rest, alright?" He puts his other hand on top of hers and there's gentle pressure as Liz smiles. 

It was an afterthought to think she was going to go anywhere anyway, she thinks, finding the nearest chair and sitting down to wait.


End file.
